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The Online Course Coach Podcast

The Online Course Coach Podcast, brought to by TrueFocusMedia.com is THE podcast for the latest in online course creation tips, news, interviews and ideas. Whether you're creating eLearning for your company or a solopreneur building an online course to sell your expertise, this podcast will give you tips from Jeff Long as well as regular interviews from other industry leaders.
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Aug 5, 2016

Michael Alaniz specializes in copywriting and Google Adwords, but the his path to success has been full of twists and turns. I met Michael at a mastermind conference in Southern California. He comes from a background in copywriting and using Adwords. He has great experience in creating online courses that we can all learn a lot from.

During that conference in Southern California, a topic came up in the group that many of us can benefit from talking about. That topic is sales. Most people said that they are no good at sales or hate it because they don’t want to be pushy, slimy, or become the stereotypical “salesman.” I agree.

However, we need to change the way we think about selling our online courses. Instead of thinking that you have to sell this many courses, tell yourself that you are simply filling a need. How can you help your audience? In what ways can you serve them? Sales will always come out of service, but sales will always suffer without service.

In this episode, we talk about how Michael lands about 90% of his meetings with prospective clients.

Be a collaborator, not a competitor. Don’t assume that because someone else is in the same industry or niche as you, that you can’t work with them. In fact, great things happen when people collaborate. You will bring your individual talents, abilities, and creativity and mix with the other person’s to create something unique and mutually beneficial.

Be okay letting go of things. Success is not linear. Sometimes, in order to move forward, you have to move backward. Life is not “win or lose;” it’s “win or learn.”

Learn more about copywriting:

  • Start with the right perspective. Remember that it’s one person who reads your copy. Be sure you hold their interest, but then align that interest with your product.
  • Learn about direct response advertising. The best places to start are with Dan Kennedy’s sales letter resources, as well as books from around the 1970s or before, written by various authors. Specifically, books that talk about the power and technique of direct response advertising.
  • Remember that the more invested someone gets with something, the more likely they are to get involved with it.

Learn about paid ad strategy. The magic happens outside paid traffic. This type of traffic is a vehicle that takes someone to what you are offering. The people who end up coming to you are those who already want the solution you offer.

  • If you try to force people to solve a problem they’re not yet ready to solve, you will waste money.
  • Make sure you focus on the audience who wants what you offer.
  • There are two sales that have to be made for the person to be “sold”:
  • The solution: the person has to decide that they want to solve the problem.
  • The who/what: who or what will solve the problem they have?

Before actually getting started with a paid ad strategy:

  • Ask yourself, “Does my product actually solve a problem?”
  • Understand that there is a path to follow to get to the right audience

Local Co-Pilot

This is Michael’s course about paid traffic search using Adwords and the power of copywriting. Although there were struggles in creating the course, Michael knows it is a great tool to help anyone needing a deeper understanding of how to market.

Moral of the story

Even if your knowledge of a subject is basic, don’t be afraid to teach others that knowledge. There are people who will pay to know what you know. You don’t have to take people deep into the topic right away. Get people comfortable in the shallow end (basics) and then take them into the deep end (more advanced material).

To learn more about Michael’s course, visit localloopmarketing.com. He gives away free stuff and has tons of great info for anyone who signs up for the mailing list.

And remember, the road to success is a windy one.

Jul 19, 2016

In this episode of The Online Course Coach Podcast, Raymond Mogdlin shares how he teaches live classes and online courses for those seeking real estate CE credits. He also shares why he created his own LMS (Learning Management System). I find a tremendous opportunity for growth in markets that require CE credits, like realtors, nurses and many other professions. If you already teach in these fields, now is the best time to start creating online courses for CE and CEU credits.

Real University - Live Classes and Online Courses for Real Estate CE Credits

Raymond Mogdlin is the Director of Real University, the online university for the continuing education (CE) of real estate professionals. Having taught live classes until the middle of 2013, he taught real estate to students at Purdue University. When Purdue switched to having online classes, Raymond moved along with the times and began teaching online training courses as well. From there, Real University, which is accredited for real estate agents in the State of Indiana, was born as a way to reach more students throughout the State. His unique style of teaching CE training courses is inspiring and he shares his thoughts and tips with us.

There are so many advantages to administering CE classes through an online course. Not only can more people be reached through this medium, but students can complete the training wherever they are, no matter the time of day. Online courses need to be updated from time-to-time, but do not require constant maintenance. The only downside, Raymond says, is if someone needs the accountability factor that goes along with attending live classes.

As part of each course, Raymond uses a screen capture software that will display a PowerPoint slide, while the audio of his voice plays over it. He also uses the app DrawMe for iPad, which allows him to draw on the screen, recording what he draws. This method is especially useful for concepts that are more complicated, that would be too static to put on a presentation slide.

Raymond says that his content takes center stage, as opposed to him as the instructor being in the spotlight. During the times where he needs to be in front of the camera, he uses two-70” television screens to display content on the video. When he uses a white board, he will keep notes of what he does, supplementing with an extra video of that information, using his methods on the iPad.

Different methods work for different people, but Raymond says that the best method for him in releasing a course is to complete the entire course before students consume it. Some like to use what he calls a “drip-drip” method, releasing a little bit as they go, but he doesn’t think that’s the most effective way. Because what Raymond does is regulated by the State, he has to ensure that all students are taught the same information. Doing it ahead of time helps him to be sure he’s releasing the correct information prior to getting it authorized by the State.

Marketing Online Courses for Real Estate CE Credits

In terms of marketing, Raymond uses the website for Indiana’s real estate board. The site lists all the accredited CE course providers in Indiana, which gives him free marketing. To piggyback on that, however, he uses a lead gen technique. For that, he will offer some courses for free. After each free course, the listener will have the option to send it to someone else they know could benefit from it. Raymond’s hope is that when someone passes it along, the recipient will become a client for the paid courses he offers. His thought is that when his training courses are something people pay for, that limits the likelihood that someone will take his information and put it into their own portfolio.

It may be obvious in today’s world that social media plays a part in almost everything we do, especially in marketing. Knowing this, Raymond uses what he calls “The Big 3:” Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Facebook Live is a tool he uses to interact with his audience on a weekly basis to either keep them engaged or bring in new audience members. He found that using paid Twitter advertisements were not especially beneficial to him, but they may be helpful for others.

Many of his marketing efforts feed into themselves. Specifically, he offers a real estate license online course through Real U called “Get Your License.” Because this is the first course many take, Raymond can count on at least a few years of his audience members coming back to him because they will need those CE credits.

This leads us into pricing. Raymond’s pricing model for a 12-hour online course is low enough with the hope that he will sell it 12-1,300 times. In order to do this, he has had to become well-versed in overcoming objections, therefore convincing his potential students that these real estate CE courses are better done online, rather than in person. Because CE is something they have to do, as opposed to something they want to do, he doesn’t think that developing pricing tiers is beneficial for this type of online course.

Raymond says that sometimes a learning management system (LMS) like Moodle can be beneficial, but there are times where it’s best to pave your own way. For instance, he had a hard time managing his courses with Moodle and scheduling live classes. Looking for a better way, he hired a developer on his own.

As of late, Raymond is starting to offer his LMS to others, for use by license. He has 40 hours of approved material, which gives his audience a library of topics to choose from. This process is currently in beta. This can be found at rootlevelup.com.

To get in touch with Raymond, visit myrealu.com. All of his contact information is on that page and he is happy to help however he can.

Online Course Coach Podcast Show Notes

  • Raymond started in nuclear engineering but transitioned into real estate
  • He was told that he was a good teacher and started to teach live classes
  • he started out with in person training classes
  • Most of his training is live training while capturing his computer and that creates the online course content
  • He uses an iPad app to do more intricate writing, calculations during the class and then puts it as bonus content
  • Raymond has learned to have the live class perfected before he tries to do an online course. He has to know exactly what content the student will need for the online course.
  • Legally in Indiana, real estate agents have to do 12 hours of continuing education credits.
  • He uses free classes as a lead generator, so real estate agents can take the free class
  • He prices his live classes and online courses affordably to get more students
  • He built his own LMS since his business is live and online. He started with Moodle but it wasn’t robust enough for his needs. He outgrew Moodle and decided to build his own Learning Management System.
  • He can assign a course to the live class or an online course (or both)
  • The LMS can track CE credits within the system
  • RootLevelUp.com is where his LMS is available
  • There are only 9 schools in Indiana that does CE credits for realtors and they recommend him
  • He uses Facebook Live to broadcast to his audience
  • He’s used paid Twitter but it didn’t work well
  • He speaks to national audiences for keynotes
  • Raymond Modglin has a radio show in Indianapolis with him talking about real estate, real estate investing and more
  • He transitioned his radio show to a podcast but put it behind his website

Questions Ray Modglin Answers on The Online Course Coach Podcast

  • What is your background?
  • How did you go from Nuclear Engineering to real estate and online education?
  • How did you get started in creating online courses?
  • How do you create your online course content (screen capture, on camera, PPT, etc)?
  • How do you use free classes as a lead generator?
  • Why did you decide to develop your own LMS instead of using something that’s already on the market?
  • What is a challenge you’ve had with your online courses over the years?
  • What are some successes you've had?
  • What are some marketing strategies that you've had that's worked?
  • How have you leveraged your platform to speak

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Jul 5, 2016

Whether you’re a beginner or you’re a season podcaster, I’m enthusiastic about helping you learn to make your online courses all they can be. That in mind, there’s something I wanted to share before we get into five ways to use podcasting to create online courses. I recently got feedback from a listener and he was asking me about creating a course. His plan was to create a grand course online as a means of helping people to master a particular subject. He was going to put everything he knew into one course. I told him not to fall into this trap because people want a course they take to be concise and not overwhelming. Putting everything you know into one course will make your listeners drop off quickly. Besides, if all your knowledge is in one podcast, what’s left for you to teach? A couple weeks ago, I was featured in the Online Course Creation Summit, which further fueled my podcast fire. I’m excited to share my knowledge with you. July 6-8 is Podcast Movement in Chicago, where I will be learning even more, networking, and bringing that knowledge back to you. Let me know if you’re going because I would love to talk more with you with the hope that we can learn from each other. In this podcast, I touched on five ways to use podcasting to promote your online course.

1. It reaches a different audience than blogging, making videos, or using social media.

These mediums have their limits, most of the time requiring someone to read. My background is in video production and I love what video does. But podcasts give you the ability to talk directly to someone while they are exercising, traveling, working around the house, etc. This is an innovative and effective way of marketing your online course to an audience that you can be sure is interested in what you have to offer.

2. Interview guests in your space to build your network and audience.

Because of this, I am always meeting new people and giving them the chance to meet people who are new to them. They get to build their audience and teach my audience at the same time. It is mutually beneficial to a degree that we may not even see until further down the road. You get to build your network and vice versa. Everybody wins. Also, it’s easier to interview guests than to come up with new topics week after week. If you’re worried about people stealing your ideas, you’re not alone. However, it’s important to look at it rationally. People are usually too busy with their own lives to take someone else’s idea. If they do, chances are they won’t do as well with the idea as you will because you are the original creator and you know more about it. My advice is to not be afraid to get your ideas out there. You never know what possibilities unfold when you take a chance.

3. Answer questions directly from your audience

This begins the interaction, letting them know you listen to their feedback. This also gives you the chance to find out what content you can create that will serve them. Perhaps more important is that you will be able to let them know that you value their time and are trying to serve them, as opposed to sell them.

4. Discuss industry news and applicable topics

First, determine if your content is evergreen or industry news. If it is news, your podcast will be dated and you should be aware of that when creating your content. Some podcasts combine news with evergreen content, giving their audience the chance to learn more from you, as the industry expert. Always be in the pursuit of knowledge yourself so that when you are looking like an expert, you will genuinely become an expert. Personally, I have found the more I study and learn, the more I grow, which in turn helps me teach you, my audience. I encourage you to do the same.

5. It will give your website content and SEO value

First off, title matters. It is what draws your audience in and tells them what they are about to learn and that you have something to teach them. It’s best if you create show notes, putting the title of your podcast into the notes. Turn those notes into a blog post on your website. But when you do, make sure your post is at least 500 words in length. For Google to even register a post as having any content, it typically needs at least 500 words in that post. Words are the easiest way to get Google’s attention, which increases your SEO. Also, make it engaging content. Since you already have that podcast, the show notes/blog should be simple. For me, I create bullet points and some basic notes before recording my voice.

BONUS: Podcasting is an effective and free way to promote your online course

If you’re looking for free ways to promote your course, podcasting is for you! As with anything, you should weigh the benefits versus the sacrifice. Are you able to put the time into editing the podcast, developing the show notes, and making them ready to be published? Or are you able to just record the podcast and let your team go to work on turning that and the show notes into a beautiful, finished product? Podcasting is free, but it does take some time. Personally, it has opened many doors and given me an outlet that I find valuable. I hope it does the same for you!

Jun 8, 2016

How to avoid online course creation overwhelm & answering your questions

May 25, 2016

Video training is one of the best ways to teach your audience. There's no shortage of niches that you can serve, teach and create an audience with, and John Highly of DentMagic.com is a great example of this. John creates video training and other instructional content for his audience and has become the industry leader in his field. I recently sat down with him at his office, since we only work a few miles away from each other. I loved talking with John Highly about his business and I'm sure you could hear his passion for what he does, his motivation to serve and his striving to improve.

The Online Course Creation Summit

The Online Course Creation Summit will feature 40 top entrepreneurs & course experts, like Pat Flynn, Ryan Lee, Danny Inny and myself. We are coming together to share our best-kept secrets on how to design, build and launch your own online course! I’ll be speaking about how to use videos in your online courses. We talk about the 3 stages of every great course video, as well as tips to make your videos look professionally made. I’ve been producing videos professionally since 2002 and I’ve worked with Dan Miller, Carrie Wilkerson, The Ziglar company, Fortune 500 companies and many more. And I give a ton of tips and tricks in my interview. You can learn about it and sign up for free by going to OnlineCourseCoach.com/summit

Online Course Coach Podcast Questions

  • Tell me about yourself and how you got started in this industry?
  • When did you decide to start teaching & creating video training online?
  • How did you get started in putting your content online?
  • What are some of the challenges you’ve had to overcome with reaching your audience and building your brand?
  • What are your marketing strategies for growing your effectiveness?
  • What types of videos do you have on your website to teach people how to repair dents?
  • Where are you going in the future with your website and platform?
  • What are some of the tools, software you use for you online training?
  • What advice would you give someone who wants to start creating online courses or membership website?

 Podcast Show Notes

Here are some notes that I took during my conversation with John Highly. What impacted you the most?

  • John grew up with a dad that owned a car dealership. He has always loved cars and vehicles.
  • He started working for $4/hr.
  • John Highly does pointless dent removal, which is a unique technique to remove dents and dings from vehicle bodies.
  • He went through a tough period of time where he had to pay his bills but wasn’t able to get easy work, like others. He found that dent restoration was a niche that wasn’t being fulfilled, so he began having other auto body places refer work to him and became known locally as the person for this type of work.
  • John started doing before and after videos and posting them to Youtube and forums. This helped grow his business as a dent repairer and become an industry leader in that niche.
  • He didn’t want to travel so he started a local business to have more stability. It's this flexibility of doing both local repair work but also online video training that sets him as the industry leader.
  • John knows how hard it is to start a business and learning to succeed.

How John Highly has Created a Video Training Library for his Membership Site

  • He has a business partner that does video, podcasting, and a membership site. They have 300+ videos on DentTrainer.com since they started and are continually adding more content to their website. This makes it increasingly more difficult for competitors to try to overtake them as the industry leader.
  • When they launched, they had months of content in “the can", which helped them quickly propel themselves and offer a lot of valuable content. This justified the price to the customer since there was so much video training content.
  • They looked at Lynda.com and Kelbe training as examples to use and then customized their own site. This allowed them to see what was working in other industries and take pieces of it for their own audience.
  • The website has a lot of various types of training content on it including videos, PDFs and other resources for the paying member to watch and download.
  • The website has free videos and content, where people can get info. This helps them get new leads, build trust and grow their audience.
  • John and his company are able to truly help people, impact them and make a difference. Create value in other people’s life is important to John and he views this as more than just a business, it's a way to make an impact.
  • They’re launching Dent Trainer live for their members soon, which will be an interactive look at the shop, allow people to ask questions and get involved even more. This helps grow the community so they aren't all relying on John Highly for leadership but can interact with each other.
  • He uses Final Cut Pro X, Canon 7D, Canon XA10, lav mic for his video training.
  • John recommends using a good membership plugin and is looking at MemberMouse.com. He recommends spending money for a really good membership plugin, rather than a cheaper plugin. He also loves and uses WordPress.org. Check out WP Courseware by Fly Plugins.
  • Create a “value ladder” with your free content. Know where you want to take them. Build your tribe and listen to them and what they need. Survey your tribe, see what they want

The Online Course Creation Summit

The Online Course Creation Summit will feature 40 top entrepreneurs &amp; course experts, like Pat Flynn, Ryan Lee, Danny Inny and myself. We are coming together to share our best-kept secrets on how to design, build and launch your own online course! I’ll be speaking about how to use videos in your online courses. We talk about the 3 stages of every great course video, as well as tips to make your videos look professionally made. I’ve been producing videos professionally since 2002 and I’ve worked with Dan Miller, Carrie Wilkerson, The Ziglar company, Fortune 500 companies and many more. And I give a ton of tips and tricks in my interview. You can learn about it and sign up for free by going to <a href="http://OnlineCourseCoach.com/summit" target="_blank">OnlineCourseCoach.com/summit</a> [gravityform id="7" title="false" description="false"] DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. When you order through my link, it helps me to continue to offer you lots of free stuff. :) Thank you, in advance for your support! Plus, wh

Apr 19, 2016

Brandon Lucero gives us a peak behind the scenes of an online course launch with this interview.  He has a successful course called, Local Video Academy, which teaches people who to leverage video to get leads and sales for clients. Brandon is a seasoned veteran of video, SEO, online marketing and is an entrepreneur at heart. Since my background is in video production, I thought it would be fun to talk with Brandon, not only about the video part of his course, but also about the process of building and launching an online course. We talked about how to promote an online course, how to market an online course, some strategies for using webinars and even a cool Facebook group trick that helps him build trust and value. We not only go through the various steps of the course marketing and launch, but Brandon also talks about what happens after a course is complete and what to consider for a course that has a lot of touchpoints. Since my background is in video production, I know how challenging it can be to continually serve clients with video content. Many production companies specialize in creating large marketing videos, but clients may only need that type of video once every few years. Brandon Lucero shares his strategies on how to find clients, how to serve them by ranking their videos and even how to help those videos bring in leads each month. This system will help both the video producer and the client by adding more value. During the introduction, I talked about creating a push goal. A push goal is something that if you achieve it, will make other goals possible. What's something you can do today to move your online course ahead? Perhaps it's something below, or that one thing that you've been avoiding for weeks. Send me an email (see the form at the bottom of this page) and let me know what your push goal is.

  • creating an outline for your course.
  • thinking of your target audience
  • sending out a survey to your list
  • learning how to run a webinar
  • asking to get interviewed on podcasts in your industry

Questions asked to Brandon Lucero:

  • How did you got started creating videos?
  • tell me about the concept of how a client doesn’t care about the product (a video) but the results that a video provides?
  • you talk about being a problem solver first rather than a video producer why is that an important thing to realize in any business?
  • What are some marketing strategies you use in Local Video Academy?
  • What is a simple way to get started in testing out an idea for an online course?
  • What is the process you take in creating and producing a webinar?
  • What is Local Video Academy
  • Why did you open up a FB group before launch and how successful was it?
  • What happens after the launch is complete?
  • What are the pros and cons of hands on course versus online courses that are more self contained?
  • How have you created online courses for multiple industries?
  • Do you have employees or freelancers in your company?
  • What would you say to someone who wants to find an employee or business partner?

The Online Course Coach Podcast Show Notes:

  • Brandon Lucero got started creating videos out of necessity.
  • when selling an online course, talk about the benefits rather than the features
  • Don’t be a best writing author…be a best selling author
  • He has several course, with one being marketed towards real estate agents
  • His marketing includes webinars, evergreen training courses,
  • A simple way to test your market is via a webinar. Use Facebook ads to drive traffic
  • Brandon does a 6 part question to know who his audience is and how to best help them
  • The first 15 minutes talks about the problems they have
  • They take 45 minutes to talk about something deep and then offer a course at the end
  • He’s launching Local Video Academy
  • It teaches people how to start, grow and scale a video production business
  • He teaches how to use Facebook ads, Youtube, SEO and smart Google tactics
  • He has a pre-launch private Facebook group that’s open before the course is open
  • Brandon is able to help people through the group, respond to questions,
  • If your course is hands on, then there will be more work for customer service. But if your course is hands off, then there will be a little less
  • He’s seen a lot more success with people who have live calls, a mastermind and more in depth services
  • He uses partnerships to help him fill in the gaps of what he doesn’t know or do well
  • Brandon has employees that allows him to focus on sales

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Apr 6, 2016

Do you struggle with how to market your online course? Do you worry that you don't have a large enough audience and that you have to spend a lot on marketing your course? One of the most common questions people ask me is how to market their online courses. While there isn't a one size fits all approach, here are 7 ways to market your online course. The key thing to do in your marketing is not to be in sales mode, but to get to know people and learn how you can serve them. The sales will come only when you show genuine interest in what can truly help them succeed. This isn't an extensive list, but it's a place to start...and it doesn't cost you any money to do these things. In future episodes, we'll talk about paid strategies for marketing your online courses, but these will get you started. [Tweet ""You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want." - Zig Ziglar"]

1. Market your online course by blogging about things surrounding the topic of your course

We all know important it is to add regular content to your website, but are you doing it? I've seen tangible results when I regularly add content to my website. Think of creative ways to blog about the overall topic, industry or news that your online course is about. Additionally you can add the following types of content to your website.

  • Blogs
  • Videos
  • Infographics
  • Audio clips/podcasts
  • Whitepapers
  • Case Studies
  • Testimonials

2. Be a guest on podcasts that has in the same target audience

I've seen this quickly propel people to success and know it can work for you too. Search iTunes or other podcast services for podcasts that are in a similar genre to your online course. Reach out to the podcast host and write a compelling reason why you should be on their podcast. Once you're on the podcast, offer as much value as possible. Check with the host, but try to give away a free bonus by giving a website link to the audience. This could be a free lesson to your course, a checklist or some other valuable piece of content.

3. Start a podcast about the topic of your online course

Create your own podcast and become the industry leader. You can talk about whatever you want to talk about, have guests on your show and build your brand with each new podcast episode. It does take more commitment and technical expertise to start and run a podcast, but the benefits are well worth it. Give yourself a 6 month to 1 year window to build your audience. Just like with anything in life, it will take time to grow your audience, so keep working at your podcast and release a new episode each week.

4. Create a YouTube channel and make tutorials and FAQ videos

Youtube is the second largest search engine behind Google and Youtube is owned by Google. So harness the power of Google by creating short videos, tutorials, FAQs and explainer videos. Then, once your video is uploaded to your Youtube channel, embed the video on your own website and write a blog post about that same topics. Ideally you'll want a blog post of 600 words or more, to get the maximum ROI from your efforts.

5. Speak at conferences about the subject of your online course

Few things will instantly give you credibility than being a speaker at a conference. I've spoke at several and it's a chance to showcase your knowledge, teach your audience and position yourself as the industry leader that you are. As a benefit some of the audience may use social media to share out your key points, so make sure to have "Tweetable" quotes.

6. Attend conferences, meetups, networking events and other places where your target audience is

There's nothing better than face to face interactions. What better place for people to get to know, like and trust you than by attending conferences, going to meetups or networking groups and any other place that your audience is.

7. Host webinars, get on Blab or Periscope to talk to your audience about your online course topic

If going to a conference and meeting people in person is valuable, than you can leverage that even more by going online and sharing your insights by hosting webinars, getting on Blab or Periscope. People want to get to know who you are and your expertise. [gravityform id="14" title="false" description="true"]

Mar 16, 2016

I first met J.D. Roth at FinCon and had the opportunity to hear him speak. He's not only knowledgeable but also personable. He built his audience and introduced online courses into his offerings throughout the years, so I knew I had to get him on The Online Course Coach Podcast to hear his story. He gives not only gives some good advice on building online courses but also gives practical wisdom about building a brand. In this episode I talk about my recent Wordcamp Dayton session about Online Courses. It will be going up on the Wordcamp.tv website, but I'll also try to post it on this website. I share why YOU should consider creating an online course, and I give several case studies from different industries. I truly think that any entrepreneur and company should consider creating online courses to help systemize their intellectual property and to better serve their audience.

Online Course Coach Podcast Show Notes:

  • He’s an "accidental personal finance expert" as he didn't intentionally get into the personal finance industry
  • A bad credit card problem kept him in debt for years
  • He read a lot content on personal finance
  • He started GetRichSlowly.org in 2006 to help teach others how to have success in their own personal finances
  • It grew organically which made it more authentic and it grew to one of the most trusted and viewed websites in the personal finance space
  • He’s a story teller, which helped increase his traffic and gain trust
  • He was open and honest in the mistakes and successes he was having and put this on the website, which made him more trustworthy to his audience
  • JD interacted with reader questions and posted it on his site, which gave a lot of good interactions with his audience. Instead of his website being a one way dialoge, he was able to create a way for his audience to communicate with him
  • He eventually sold the website but kept working on the website
  • J.D. partnered with Chris Gilliabeau to create a course called the Unconventional Guide to Money at http://moneytoolbox.com
  • He views creating a course like a marathon but blogging is more like a sprint
  • If your course is more of an ebook, don’t call it an ebook as that has a cheap connotation. There is more of a percieved value with an online course versus an ebook. So think of ways that you can package your ebook into something more substantial, like an online course or membership site
  • J.D. Roth was asked to teach a live class on the Guide to Money and discovered he still loves teaching finances and wanted to start a new website and business, so he began thinking of way to do this
  • He started a new business and website called MoneyBoss.com
  • Some things he recommends are, finding work that you love, which is rewarding. This is what I teach as well. It's easier to be passionate for the long term with something you love, than trying to "find where the money is" and build a business around that. You will enjoy your work if you are excited about the topic. This applies to online courses too. Find a topic you are knowledgable and passionate about and create a course around it
  • It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the big picture and focus on the one thing you need to focus on today. This is important because so many of us struggle with trying to find the "next thing" but we really need to focus on working on the best things that will move us forward in our lives and business, in order to help us achieve our goals.

Questions asked to J.D. Roth of MoneyBoss.com

  • What is your background in the financial industry?
  • What was Get Rich Slowly Course and why did you create it?
  • What did you learn along the way?
  • how has education played a role in your business?
Have a question for the podcast?
 
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Feb 11, 2016

 

Podcast Listener question:

I was listening to your latest episode "Why You Should Create an Online Course & How to Plan One." First, I have to say that I found it very informative and full of great content, so thank you for recording it. I own a small business currently, and would like to start another business creating some online courses. I have a great idea for one in a niche that I currently am working in. I have an idea and the curriculum for a great online course that I know would sell. However, I have no social media presence, email list, or following in any capacity. I know a lot of the information I have found on starting an online course is geared towards people who already have an email list or something. My question for you is it possible for me to have a successful launch of an online course without already having some sort of following? If so, what would be the way to do it? Where would I launch or promote it? - Michael

A summary of my answers:

  • Ask as many people in your target audience what they think, how much they would pay and would they find valuable.
  • Then, create a test group of VIPs and require them to pay in order to get early access into the course. Many people get excited about being able to craft the course with you.
  • It's not a big roadblock that you don't have an audience or large platform...do you know someone in the industry that does? You could have them be a part of the training, especially if you do videos. You can have them promote it as an affiliate and/or give recommendations.
  • You can start a podcast on the topic and interview industry leaders. You can get on other podcasts as a guest to speak to the pain points of your target audience. Go to onlinecoursecoach.com/podcastcourse to learn the exact forumla for success.
  • Where you build the course depends on your audience and your long term vision. Should it be on your website or hosted on another platform?
  • Do you want to use something pre-existing and pay a monthly fee (or a percentage of your sales), or do you want to have your own website where you control all aspects of the course? This will determine where to host it.

The Online Course Coach Podcast Questions:

  1. What was your background before your first online course?
  2. Why did you create the Double Your Freelance rate course?
  3. What did you learn while creating it, is the current course the same one as you originally launched?
  4. What systems, tools or websites do you use to house and deliver the courses?
  5. Now that you’ve create multiple courses, what have you learned along the way?
    1. How have your courses gotten better as you've created more courses over the years, or what have you done to make them better?
  6. Tell me about Double Your Freelancing Clients and why you decided to create it.
  7. How has building your courses helped impact more lives and increased your success (success could be financially, time freedom, etc)?
  8. What marketing strategies have you used to promote your courses?
  9. Who all do you utilize throughout the course creation process? Is it just you, or do you have a team that supports you along the way?
  10. Where can people learn more you about you and your courses?

Online Course Coach Podcast Show Notes:

  • He started an agency as he moved into a new town and grew it into a agency
  • Brennan then left the agency and started a software as a service business, called Planscope.io
  • This first course, Double Your Freelance Rate was originally an ebook, before he made it into a full fledged course
  • There is an auto responder within the course to help with accountability
  • The name of his course was originally the title of the course but then it became the name of the course
  • He used pricing tiers to help improve his sales, and better help his students learn better
  • Don’t assume a self study course is enough. Make it high touch for maximum impact
  • Within his course, he has upsell opportunities that helps the student, and increases Brennan’s revenue
  • Double Your Freelancing Rate using Gumroad to deliver the course workbook content in pdf and mobi files. He then delivers the videos within a local environment so they can watch it on their computer.
  • He gives a free email course that takes 2 weeks but afterward, he offers the course at a discount to buy DYFR
  • Double Your Freelancing Clients is 57 videos lasting 5 hours of content. It’s different in that he’s available for office hours to ask any questions
  • He only markets to his own audience with the DYFC and mainly for those that have taken his DYFR course.
  • Brennan uses paid ads as well free traffic that comes to his site, takes the free email course and then buy his paid course
  • For the most part, Brennan does most of the work himself
  • Go to FreePricingCourse.com to see Brennan's system and flow
  • Go to DoubleYourFreelancing.com for more blog posts, articles, and podcasts on the topic of increasing your rates
Jan 27, 2016

Why create a course?

Online courses seem to be the big emphasis right now, and I get a lot of people asking if it's just a fad. While we've all seen things like social media, membership sites and other things get promoted by the "gurus" come and go, I believe the importance of an online course won't fade. I believe that to truly impact the world and make it a better place, that we need to change how we educate people. As more people go online for shopping, dating and most importantly, learning, we need to consider ways to make the learning process more engaging and successful for the student.

Get the free bonus - My detailed notes from the book, The Magic of Thinking Big (or go to OnlineCourseCoach.com/thinkingbig)

Click to Get My Notes on The Magic of Thinking Big

 

How to plan your next online course

Most people that I coach get overwhelmed with creating an online course. They don't know where to start or how to build the lessons. Here are some tips to plan and create your next course.

  • Write down what it would be like if the online course (or project) was a success. This is where you dream of the success your course will achieve. Look back at this list when you get discouraged.
  • Write down, "why I am the one to create this course". This will help you focus on your strengths and why YOU (yes, you) should create that online course.
  • Create an outline of the course and think through the overview of the project.
  • Create goals and then work backwards. Think "what must be true or what must happen to lead up to this goal?" Think in small attainable steps. - break a stick
  • The best way to gain clarity on your goal is to take 1 step towards your goal
  • Know your "why". - it will keep you going when you get discouraged. Write it down and look at what's at stake if you don't create your online course and publish it?
    • You protect yourself from failure, you can say it's something you're working on, regret of not doing it, etc
  • What's at stake of you do publish your course?
    • You help a lot of people, you create life change, you create impact on others and income for yourself, you'll build your platform that you can leverage in speaking, authority, more courses, etc. you create something big make a target deadline for starting, creating each chapter, marketing and launch

How to Think Big With Your Online Course or Project

  1. Don't make excuses. That's for small thinking people
  2. Don't underestimate the value that you provide
  3. See what can be not what currently is
  4. Don't worry about little things.
  5. Waste your time keeps you from thinking big positive
  6. Use words that are positive and big thinking
  7. Practice adding value to people, clients and family

Do you struggle with thinking big about yourself, your projects and the importance of your work? I highly recommend the book, The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J Schwartz. It's a classic and has so much wisdom packed into this book. I read it at least once a year and update my notes each time. I'm giving away my detailed notes, so you can read the book and follow along. Click the link below to quickly get access to these notes and start thinking big about yourself and your work. It is one of my top 10 books, and you will see why after reading.

Get the free bonus - My detailed notes from the book, The Magic of Thinking Big (or go to OnlineCourseCoach.com/thinkingbig)

Click to Get My Notes on The Magic of Thinking Big

 

Books referenced in this podcast

  • The Magic of Thinking Big
  • Start with Why (is that the title?)

More Resources

Listening to "This Is Your Life with Michael Hyatt" - Season 6, Episode 7: How to Become a Big Thinker

Dec 14, 2015

Keith Perhac has been working with some of the top names in the online course, membership site and internet marketing space. In this podcast he shares his tips on creating online courses from existing blog content or email campaign material. He also gives advanced strategies for tiered pricing and why you should never release an online course or membership site without offering tiered pricing.

In this podcast we cover in depth the following:

How to create a course from your existing blog content or email course? If you have a blog with 3, 6, or 36 months of content or an email course, you have a goldmine full of content to harvest for your course. In this conversation, Keith will teach your audience how to take their existing content from their blog and turn it into a high-quality, high-value, revenue producing course.

  The Benefits of Tiered Pricing. If you already have a product, an eBook, or a course, have you considered the benefits of adding Tiered Pricing? In this conversation, Keith will teach your audience on how offering different ‘tiers’ of the same product will dramatically increase the amount of revenue that your course can generate.

Get the free bonus audio interview - Keith Perhacs's top marketing strategies for online course creators.

Click to Download the Bonus Audio

Online Course Coach Podcast Questions:

  • Talk about some ways that you’ve helped the big names in the optimizing their courses
  • We all know the importance of adding content for SEO and customer value, but how can someone create a course from their existing blog material?
  • How do you know what content to use and what content that’s not good enough for an online course?
  • How can you piece together you blog content that may not have a natural bridge between the blog posts?
  • What are some other steps you recommend from taking blog content to an online course
  • What are some marketing strategies you’ve seen to successfully sell online courses?
  • Why is tiered pricing so important?
  • How important is the naming of your tiers
  • What are some good names to use?
  • Tell me what SummitEvergreen.com is
  • Where can people learn more about you?

Online Course Coach Podcast Show Notes:

  • http://keithperhac.com
  • He works with conversion to make existing content convert better into a sale
  • The best way to promote your course is to give 80% of it away for free
    • This is becoming the industry standard
  • All course content is available online, but your custom narrative is what makes it different and unique
  • Blog content is divided into personal and informational or educational
  • Turn yourself into a personality, which draws people into the narrative
  • Ask your audience what they want to learn by creating a course with your content. Send an email asking what they think about a blog post to see what their response is.
  • Start with an outline of what the course will include in each lesson
  • If you have 4 blog articles on the same topic, ask your audience what they think about it. Then create a PDF or webinar around that topic. Offer it as an opt in where they get access to the content. If people give positive or negative feedback, then you know what direction to take.
  • **Release small content first to test the market
  • Online Courses can be tweaked and modified along the way. You can even improve it as you go as students give you feedback.
  • YouTube has a mywebcam to record your own videos and edit them within YouTube
  • Use a drip feed to deliver the content to have each lesson build upon each other
  • An online course has more value, even over a 100 page PDF
  • Do interviews as part of your course
  • Have a lead up to the launch of the course. A two week lead up is recommended. Get people engaged with what you’re going to sell.
  • Price anchoring or tiered pricing is highly recommended. Nathan Barry does this really well
  • **The highest tier have more money and less time and are willing to spend more money to save time
  • Communities are highly valuable
  • In your pricing tiers, think 1x, 2x, and 10x for your 3 pricing tiers

Get the free bonus audio interview - Keith Perhacs's top marketing strategies for online course creators.

Click to Download the Bonus Audio

 
Dec 3, 2015

I was first introduced to Grant Baldwin a while back as he joined my mastermind group, which is based in Nashville, TN. While he's an accomplished speaker, he's also a great guy, who's funny, but is as genuine personally as he appears when he's on stage. I was able to hear him speak at FinCon2015 and was greatly impacted by his message, which he shares about in this podcast. I knew that Grant had put out some online courses but was really impressed with the article that he wrote for Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income blog, titled, "From Course Concept to $141,659 In Sales In 6 Months". He shares the process he took when he build, sold and marketed his online course. In this podcast he goes in depth on this topic and additional insights.

5 reasons why a public speaker should create online courses

I've worked with speakers over the years and respect what they do. Speakers have a message to share and are passionate about their topic. Many times they motivate or encourage life-change in their message. While most speakers have books, CDs, DVDs and other programs,  many don't have online courses to provide to their audience for back of the room sales, or on their website. If you're a speaker, you'll love this episode of the Online Course Coach Podcast, I share 5 reasons why a public speaker should create online course.

  1. It allows them to create an additional revenue stream
  2. It gives something else for back of the room sales
  3. It can supplement your talk, book or other media you sell
  4. It allows you to build your platform, email list and fan base while giving them long term value
  5. It lets you build a community, which can 10x your success and significance

Online Course Coach Podcast Guest Questions:

  • Give me background of your speaking career
  • Tell me about your first course and how it didn’t meet up to your initial expectations?
  • Why was the title of your course a reason for poor sales?
  • Why did you decide to create a new online course, rather than just improve your original one?
  • Why is the validation phase of the process so important?
  • How did you sell to the beta tester group?
  • Was it hard to sell to the beta tester group?
  • How was the new launch compared to the original launch?
  • What marketing strategies have worked the best?
  • What lessons have you learned in your joint ventures to sell this course?
  • How do you use your free 9 part email course?

Online Course Coach Podcast Show Notes:

  • I heard him talk at FinCon 2015
  • He is an accomplished speaker but wanted to create a course
  • His first course was called, "Clarity Course”, to help people find clarity in their work and find or create work they love, but it wasn’t as successful as he’d hoped
  • You need to find where your target audience is and serve them
  • Think about what questions you constantly get asked and develop a course on that topic
  • His second course, to speakers, was very clear in what it offers
  • He wrote an article that outlines some of the details of his process http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/from-course-concept-to-141659-in-sales-in-6-months/
  • Sell something before you create it to validate your course idea by polling your audience and telling them what you’re planning on building it.
  • There’s a difference between pre-selling your course vs doing a free beta
  • Grant did Facebook ads to direct people to webinars to drive sales
  • He uses LeadPages, Google Hangouts and Chatroll for his webinar
  • He has a free 9 part email course at bookedandpaidtospeak.com
  • His website is found at GrantBaldwin.com
What online courses are you working on? I'd love to hear what you're working on.
 
Nov 21, 2015

Erin Chase of $5Dinners.com shares insights about her membership site and online courses on The Online Course Coach Podcast. I was able to get to know of Erin a bit at FinCon and knew I had to get her on the show. Oddly enough, she used to live a few miles away from where I currently live and we know some of the same people. You will be able to hear her heart and how she loves to save money and help others. She loves helping people save money and stretch their dollars so they can pay off debt, be more wise with their money and find space in their budget. This episode is being released before Thanksgiving and the Christmas season. I think having Erin on The Online Course Coach Podcast at this time is the perfect timing. What better time to have someone on the show, who specializes in saving money and creating $5 dinners! We went into a lot of the history, details and vision she has for her membership website, online courses and business. In this episode you'll learn how Erin has become so efficient and productive, if she has a team supporting her and how she gets so much done during the day. In this episode, I share how I recently worked with a well known New York Times Best Selling author, speaker and consultant to help her create a 7 day video course. We had our video crew on set and did a full day shoot. Our schedule consisted of filming 15 videos for her upcoming website launch and online course. Once it's launched I'll release the details of it and share a link so you can see it. The content is fantastic and I learned a lot while editing the course content, so I know you'll learn a lot too!

Online Course Coach Interview Questions:

  • Give us a background of how you started with $5 dinners?
  • When did you roll out the membership site side of your business?
  • How have you been able to create a community around your website?
  • Do you consider yourself an educator?
  • What excites you about your services?
  • Tell me about your online course.
  • What are some ways that you’ve marketed your membership site?
  • What have you learned along the way that’s helped improve your membership site and services?
  • Where can people learn more about you and $5 Dinners?

Click to Register to win a *FREE FinCon 2016 ticket

The Online Course Coach Podcast Shownotes

  • She spent a lot of time putting together good content and recipes
  • Jim Wang and her put together a pilot test with 300 people
  • They do a lot of surveys with their audience to see what works and what doesn't
  • She’s passionate about helping people spend less on groceries
  • She has the Grocery Budget Makeover Course
  • Erin schedules different things for each day so she’s the most efficient
  • She does her own video work and has a small team doing other work
  • To help market, she advertises her membership site and courses on her website, blog, social media and newsletters
  • She only releases her course 3 times per year
  • Erin does a modified version of Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula

Click to Register to win a *FREE FinCon 2016 ticket

What courses, membership sites or eLearning content are you creating? One of the goals of my podcast is to help you take your idea and get the information to build it into an online course. I would love to hear what you have learned in this podcast (or others) to be able to build and launch your online course or membership site. My mission is to help you, to teach many to impact millions. Ask me a question below, or give me an update on your progress. I'd love to hear from you.
 
*In order to win the FinCon 2016 ticket, you must be a new attender to FinCon.Free ticket contest only covers the cost of one ticket to the 2016 FinCon conference and not travel, meals, or other expenses.
Nov 10, 2015

image of Tom Ziglar as he talks about Success tips for course creators and building Ziglar on Demand Learning Center I've had the privilege of meeting Tom Ziglar several times and have always been impressed with the content that they share. I look to them for honest and integrity based sales training. In this Online Course Coach Podcast interview, Tom Ziglar shares a behind the scenes look into building Ziglar on Demand & why removing audio and video content made their membership site better. I find it interesting that many course creators want to put ALL their information into a course. And I get it, we want to add value and teach everything we know. And while that's a good thing, it might overwhelm your audience. There is also value in create an online course that delivers high quality content, but only what's needed to master a topic. Think of how much your audience would pay if you offered a course that saved them time and only taught the necessary tactics? Plus, the students would probably finish it and find more value in the rapid learning they were able to do. Tom talks about why they originally put a LOT of content on their Ziglar on Demand online learning center, but then found out that more is not better. They looked at their website analytics and determined what their top content was and removed the rest. The result is that people are able to find the best content on their site and don't get overwhelmed with all the additional content that is there within the site. How can you use this same strategy in your membership sites and online courses?

The Online Course Coach Podcast Questions

  1. What is something that you are learning and excited about right now?
  2. The listeners to this show are teachers, entrepreneurs and creators. What encouragement and hope can you provide to them?
  3. Some of the listeners are in the planning stages of their online courses and unsure of many things from course content, technical setup, and what success to expect. So how can someone move past the fear of the unknown?
  4. What is a success tip that has meant a lot to you over the years?
  5. Give us a background of Ziglar on Demand is?
  6. Why did you decide on putting Zig's library of content online?
  7. Explain the process of putting Zig's content online for Ziglar On Demand?
  8. What are some successes stories you've seen with it being online?
  9. Where can people learn more about you and Ziglar on Demand?

Online Course Coach Show notes

  • Tom is building a strategy for his upcoming online course and program
  • Live to Win - 7 weeks to balanced success
  • He gets up early to do a “time capsule” to think through and plan his day
  • Use your most creative time of the day to create…not answer emails, phone calls, etc.
  • For Ziglar on Demand, they removed a lot of the content that they originally had, so that their best content is online, and not every single piece of Zig’s training
  • http://ziglarvault.com has a lot of additional content
 
Oct 29, 2015

I've had a passion for working with speakers since high school. While I'm not a professional speaker, I know that creating an online course can add tremendous value to the back of the room sales for any speaker. I had the privilege of talking with Jane Atkinson of The Wealthy Speaker University. Jane shares some of her success tips to creating an online course for her audience of speakers, but she also shares the times she learned what didn't work for her audience.

Get the free bonus audio interview where Jane shares her top marketing strategies for selling her online course. Click to Download the Bonus Audio

Jane Atkinson's Bio

Jane Atkinson has been helping speakers catapult their businesses for over 20 years. As a former speaker’s agent, she has represented numerous speakers, celebrities and best-selling authors. Today, Jane coaches some of the industry's hottest stars, who have vaulted to the top 3% of the field. Her clients are the who’s who…. Executive VP’s of Fortune 100 companies, Editors-in-Chief of Top Magazines, Bestselling Authors, Adventurers, Ivy League Professors and regular everyday people who have a strong message.

Questions asked to Jane Atkinson during The Online Course Coach Podcast interview

  1. What is it about working with speakers that first intrigued you over 20 years ago? (did you admire their success, their impact, or something else?)
  2. What are some ways that you have helped speakers succeed through your materials (books, coaching, courses, etc)?
  3. Why did you create WealthySpeakerU? (did you find you were reaching your capacity in how many you could help at once, or wanted more leverage...or something entirely different?)
  4. Give us a peak behind the scenes at how you created the course. (not just the nuts and bolts, but something that other online course creators would find intriguing)
  5. Tell me how your beta release went and what you learned from your audience?
  6. Why did you chose the course formats including course content, coaching calls, Facebook group, etc. (was it an easy choice to include these or were there other items you thought about including?)
  7. Do you offer a Facebook community in your course?
  8. What is a tip that you can offer to the listener who has an online course?
  9. What are the productivity tools you use in your business and online courses?
  10. Where can people learn more about you and WealthySpeakerU?

The Online Course Coach Podcast Show Notes

  • She helps speakers create products they can sell so they can speak less and make more
  • She created the Wealthy Speaker U course to avoid trading time for money
  • Her goal was to leverage what the speaker knows
  • Jane used surveys to learn what her audience wanted and they told her that they wanted the course
  • She saw a Facebook ad that said something like “Is your calendar full without adding more time"
  • They use a hybrid course with teaching online and doing some live training
  • There were too many people, the course was too cheap and it was a problem so the first course didn’t go well
  • She made a mistake with her evergreen webinar that her students bonded and she wasn’t live during her webinars. From now she’ll be live
  • While she can use Facebook ads, she learned that she had to sell the course herself and not rely on ads
  • Jane knows her list and audience are her best customers
  • The price point has to be inexpensive so people will sign up
  • A tip is to have a platform, ask what they want and serve them
  • An online course is an evolution
  • She uses an online calendar to schedule meetings to systematize her business

Get the free bonus audio interview where Jane shares her top marketing strategies for selling her online course. Click to Download the Bonus Audio

Oct 22, 2015

I've been using LearnDash on several projects over the years, so I wanted to get the founder on the podcast to talk. In this week's Online Course Coach Podcast, Justin Ferriman talks about what this LMS plugin is, what markets can benefit from it and some good marketing strategies. I like this LMS for its flexibility, quiz features, gamification (badges, points, leaderboard, etc) and that they are constantly coming out with new features. I'm using LearnDash on a current project which will have 5 full video-based courses on it and we'll be adding more courses in the future.

Click to Register to win a *FREE FinCon 2016 ticket

Bio of Justin Ferriman of the LearnDash LMS Plugin

Justin Ferriman - Co-Founder, CEO
 
Justin has made a career as an elearning consultant where he has implemented global training programs for Fortune 500 companies.
 
Passionate about elearning and WordPress, both Justin and LearnDash have been featured in multiple industry publications, including ELearning!Magazine, Training Magazine, INTERCOM Magazine, EdTechMagazine, Chief Learning Officer, and Learning Technologies by the Association for Talent Development.
 
Justin’s experience-based vision has helped make LearnDash the most trusted WordPress LMS plugin for major universities, continuing education providers, and entrepreneurs world-wide.

Podcast Questions Asked of Justin Ferriman

  • What is your background?
  • How did you came up with Learn Dash?
  • Please give a brief overview of what LD does. (not the best way I asked this…cut out the first part of the question)
  • What industries can LearnDash be best used in?
  • What's one of the most creative uses for LearnDash that you've seen?
  • what's a success story that you can share of someone that used LearnDash?
  • What are your tips for making elearning courses?
  • What are your tips for marketing courses?
  • Where you are going with LearnDash in the future?
  • Where do you think eLearning is going in the future?
  • What are you most proud of with LD?
  • Where can people learn more about you?

The Online Course Coach Podcast Show Notes

  • Justin started as a consultant and doing eLearning setup and creation
  • In corporate training it’s hard to make the eLearning courses engaging and interactive
  • He wanted a WordPress based solution for an LMS but didn’t find any
  • At the start, it was small and he educated people on what an LMS is and why someone should use it
  • They launched in 2013 and they haven’t looked back
  • LearnDash is used in colleges and universities but also in industries like bloggers, certification agencies, digitalmarketer.com, medical training, etc.
  • Tips to make an online course - Start planning your course with Word, PowerPoint or other basic software to get the outline
  • The marketing strategy depends on your industry and online course. Create your course and have beta testers who can review it and give you feedback.
  • He contributed to blogs, elearning sites, and more to build his brand and list
  • They did a pre-launch which gave him the early adopters
  • MOOCS are becoming the next big thing and will be the industry standard

To learn more about LearnDash and it's features and benefits, click here.

Click to Register to win a *FREE FinCon 2016 ticket

Have a question for the podcast?
 
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Oct 15, 2015

image of Anna Sabramowicz Instructional Design While the term Instructional Design may seem too intimidating for many online course creators, it's important to know what it is and it can improve the quality of your courses and eLearning projects. Anna Sabramowicz shares her experience in this field and how important it is to get the student's feedback throughout the project. This will help you create a better course, learn the pain points of why they purchased your online course and help you build a community around your course. I had a lot of fun with Anna on the Online Course Coach Podcast and her engaging personality comes through in the interview. It was my goal to find someone to bring on the podcast to talk about Instructional Design in simple and easy to understand terms, and she did just that. I work with a lot of people who don't consider the learning process that a student will take and what all the student will learn throughout the course. It's easy to breeze through the course creation process and packing the course with all the knowledge you have. But, it might be more important to step back and determine the few things that the student wants to learn. The best way to do this is through beta testing your course with your ideal student base. The more feedback you get throughout the process of course creation, the better your course will be. This process works similar to the Lean Startup model and can be applied to your online course and eLearning projects.

Anna Sabramowicz's Bio

Anna Sa•bra•mo•wicz  is the founder of ElearnerEngaged, an boutique elearning studio, responsible for award winning scenario based learning like "Broken Co-worker: Interactive eLearning Scenario." She published her own online course on learner centered instructional design, Skillagents.com, which has been described as “eating a box of chocolates”. Anna makes no claims to be a technology expert, but loves to empathize with the learners’ experience. Oddly enough, her advocacy for learner centered design and results driven education—where training time really matters—has made her a complete contrarian.

The Online Course Coach Podcast Questions

  • What is your background?
  • How did you get started in creating online courses?
  • What is instructional design?
  • What are some things you can do in the Instructional Design phase of the course creation process?
  • How important is instructional design to creating online courses?
  • How can a beta student help improve the course for the instructor?
  • What are some things an entrepreneur should keep in mind with instructional design in their own courses?
  • What are some struggles you've had along your career in regards to online courses?
  • What are some successes you’ve had along your career in regards to online courses?
  • What are some marketing strategies that you've had that's worked?
  • What is Skill Agents and what does it provide?
  • onlinecoursecoach.com/skillagents

Show notes from the interview with Anna Sabramowicz

  • She started out as a school teacher and moved to adult education
  • Anna worked in the corporate world first
  • She has worked with Rubbermaid and other Fortune 500 companies
  • Most people don’t know what Instruction Design is and it’s a fairly new concept in online educational
  • Ask the student why they are taking this course…it’s a good way to hear their motivation
  • Use reflection within a course. Ask deep questions to the student throughout the course to get them to think deeply about the subject they are learning
  • Offer your course to a group of people to review your course and give you feedback
    • Ask: how are you using the material in your life?
  • She uses her Youtube channel as her best form of marketing
  • Use coupon code “coursecoach” for online course for 40% off! by going to onlinecoursecoach.com/skillagents to learn more about her online course

 

 
Oct 8, 2015

One of the things that many people struggle with are not just creating the course material, but how to put it online for their students to access it. While some people have the technical expertise to create their own website and sell the course through it, others want an easy solution, and that's what Ruzuku does. Abe Crystal talks about this platform, how it got started and why you may want to consider using it. Abe offers some solid advice on how to best market your online course and recommends similar strategies as to what I recommend, so pay attention to those in the interview.

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Abe Crystal Bio:

Abe Crystal, Ph.D. is a co-founder of Ruzuku. Ruzuku’s online platform makes it ridiculously easy for you to create your own online course or coaching program. Ruzuku has hosted over 10,000 courses serving over 80,000 students around the world. Abe specializes in learning design and user experience research, and earned his Ph.D. in human-computer interaction at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Podcast questions I asked Abe Crystal:

  • what is your background in eLearning?
  • why did you create Ruzuku?
  • why do your users choose Ruzuku over your competitors?
  • what are some trends you've seen in eLearning?
  • where do you see eLearning going in the future?
  • what are some of the best marketing strategies?
  • If someone wants to get started with Ruzuku, where can they go?

Podcast Notes:

  • His background isn’t originally in eLearning but in user experience
  • He wants to help learn and grow
  • Ruzuku is a platform that pulls all the technical aspects together and makes it easy
  • http://pcosdiva.com/ is a good example of a good online course that has a niche audience and is able to serve the community with an online course, which is built on the Ruzuku platform
  • Build an audience, find a need, listen to what they want to learn and then build the course
  • Create a pilot or beta phase of the course where people can test out the course
  • Use LinkedIn to promote the course
  • If you have an audience, it’s much easier
  • Start by building a fan base of 1000 fans, as outlined by Kevin Kelly of Wired Magazine. http://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/
  • A 4 week live-course with is easier to run versus an evergreen course and it gets more engagement and sales (generally speaking)
  • Ruzuku allows the teacher to add text, video and audio and let’s the teacher not have to worry about the technology side of building a course

Click Here to Register to win a *FREE FinCon 2016 ticket

*In order to win the FinCon 2016 ticket, you must be a new attender to FinCon.Free ticket contest only covers the cost of one ticket to the 2016 FinCon conference and not travel, meals, or other expenses.  

 
Oct 1, 2015

I had the privilege of attending FinCon in Charlotte, North Carolina recently. And while this conference is primarily for those in the financial industry, I loved attending. I share my thoughts and takeaways. I also was able to interview 6 people at FinCon who have online courses or membership sites and they gave a favorite tip and tool that they use in their online courses.

What I loved about attending FinCon

  • It is the most well run conference I’ve attended
  • Everyone is willing and wanting to help
  • It’s a great place to meet awesome people
  • I got to listen to and meet people like Pat Flynn, Jeff Goins, Noah Kagen of AppSumo, Chase Reeves of Fizzle,  and learn from many other awesome speakers.
  • The organizer actually recommended to skip the sessions and network the entire time
  • I was glad to see many people are creating online courses and got to interview a few of them for this podcast and I lined up some people you may know, with large audiences to talk about their successes with their online courses
  • I was amazed at how many people want to create an online course and I was inundated with questions about the tech, strategies and marketing of online courses. I plan on addressing these questions in coming podcasts…so subscribe to the podcast and stay tuned

Register to win a *FREE FinCon 2016 ticket

Registration is simple and the more you share it out, the more chances you have to win! I would be honored if you were my guest to FinCon 2016.

The 5  types of online courses that you may want to consider

While there are many different types of courses that you can create for your audience (I like to call them students), these 5 items below are some options I like to start off with when I'm coaching someone who wants to create an online course. I go more in depth in the podcast, so listen and think if one of these would work well for your students.

  1. Email driven course where they sign up and get dripped content over time.
  2. A short self study online course that focusses on one area from start to finish. The benefit is that it’s short and actionable. People are willing to pay for a short course that solves one problem.
  3. A screencast walkthrough of software, presentation or other content.
  4. A video driven course with you on camera, powerpoint slides, pdf downloads, Facebook private group, monthly webinars. Include multiple tiers with more items added to the course with each increased paid tier.
  5. A certification course - create content where students walk through the course, get help from you, are awarded points and badges for each module they complete and are awarded with a certificate at the end.

Tips and Tools for Online Course  and Membership Site Creators from FinCon

Brian Mikes

Brian MikesBrian is a serial Entrepreneur. He loves to start, run, and invest in small businesses. With experience in online marketing, sales, and corporate finance, he wears many hats! Currently, he runs Hyperion Financial Group, an online financial publishing company. He also sits on the Board of Betwext.com, a cutting edge text message platform for small business. Brian also invests in and consults with small businesses in a number of different industries. You can reach Brian here.  


 

Kirk Du Plessis

optionalpha.com


 

Gabby Wallace

laptopteacher.com


 

Steph Halligan

headshot of stephanie halliganSteph Halligan is the entrepreneurial cartoonist behind Art To Self. She's also the creator of You Deserve More, a 7-day course to help freelancers and entrepreneurs charge what they’re worth. Get her free 6-lesson mini course and free scripts for raising your rates at YouDeserveMore.co    


 

David Stein

headshot of j david stein of Money For the Rest of UsDavid Stein is host of Money For the Rest of Us, a weekly personal finance show. He also runs the Money For the Rest of Us Hub, an online educational platform on money, how it works, and how to invest it. Previously, he was Chief Investment Strategist and Chief Portfolio Strategist at Fund Evaluation Group, a $35 billion institutional investment advisor. At FEG he co-lead the 20 person research team and managed assets for endowments, foundations and financial planners. You can find him at www.moneyfortherestofus.net or on Twitter @jdstein


 

Deacon Hayes

wellkeptwallet.com   *In order to win the FinCon 2016 ticket, you must be a new attender to FinCon.Free ticket contest only covers the cost of one ticket to the 2016 FinCon conference and not travel, meals, or other expenses.

Sep 24, 2015

If you've been online for any period of time, you probably know who James Schramko is. I like his simple and down to earth style in teaching. He doesn't use hype or extreme marketing language. James has taught a lot about online courses, membership sites and joint ventures, and in this episode we talk about each one in depth. One of the things that surprised me was his reasoning for taking his online courses and combining them into a membership site, and James goes into the details of why he did this and how it's helped his audience. Interview notes with James Schramko

  • His first course were simple notes that he created. It was a simple checklist
  • He opened it as an affiliate and offered bonuses
  • James likes checklists and thinks it’s an easy to create online courses and products with checklists
  • He wants to create value through his products and courses
  • Create a product based on what you want to learn…and teach others how he did it
  • Use the format of Intro, Why, What, How, What if, Action Steps to create an course outline template
  • Some of his mistakes he’s made is how he’s packaged his products.
  • He offers his online membership, where he offers his courses, products, etc.
  • Since most students don’t go through the whole course, it makes more sense to offer a membership site with a lot of information
  • He doesn’t do many joint ventures
  • Joint ventures might be bad if you’re too scared to do all the work and hope that the other person will do all the work
  • He recommends buying traffic instead of doing joint ventures
  • Don’t do joint ventures with friends…be accountable and have a plan before
  • when he does a video and audio, he gets twice the downloads with audio, versus video
  • Another great interview on the topic of membership sites: http://www.superfastbusiness.com/business/how-to-jumpstart-your-membership-forum/

Questions I asked James Schramko:

  • Tell me about your first course and why you decided to create it.
  • Why should someone create an online course?
  • What are some good ways to select a topic for an online course
  • Explain your course outline template?
  • What’s the ideal length of audio/video content
  • What are some mistakes you've made with your online courses?
  • What advice do you have for joint venture opportunities?
  • What are some success stories you've heard from your students?
  • **What tools do you use when creating courses or products?
  • How do you determine what medium to use? Audio, video or text only?
  • Besides  your website, SuperFastBusiness.com, where can people find you through social media?

Online Course Coach Listener Review

Jeff knows his stuff    
August 19, 2015 by Xprtlstnr from Australia
Just listened to why one would want to create an online course and if you hadn't wondered about this; maybe you should. Don't be selfish and keep all the good stuff to yourself. Listen to Jeff for encouragement and expert tips on how to get your show on the road!

You can leave a review of the podcast at OnlineCourseCoach.com/review

 

Have a question for the podcast?

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Transcript: Jeff Long: In this episode I talk with James Shramko about online courses, membership sites and joint ventures. Welcome to the online coach podcast brought to you by truefocusmedia.com, whether you’re a beginner or expert, this is the podcast for the latest and online course creation tips, news, interviews and ideas. And here is your coach, Jeff Long. Jeff Long: Welcome back to another episode and oh man this one is so good. I had the opportunity to talk with somebody that I’ve been following for quite some time. And I forgot where I first got introduced to James Shramko. I’m not sure if it was his website where he blogs or his podcast but they are a great resource. So his website is superfastbusiness.com and we talk a lot about his online courses, his products, as well as why he moved to a membership site and he gives some really good advice on joint ventures. Well let’s get right into the show and I’m really excited to have James Shramko on the podcast. I’ve been a big fan of his for quite some time and he’s been online doing courses on membership sites and training products for years. A matter a fact he talks about his first product and how he got his start. And I’ve been listening to his podcast, I’ve been reading his website, reading his blogs and articles and he shares a lot about online courses and tips and tricks and some of those we’ll talk about in this episode. But I first got to introduce to those on his podcast and his website, so as I was reading those I knew we had to get him on the show because of all his experience. So we actually talk about his first training product. He also shared what he did with all of his courses and the reason behind it. And I think you’ll find it really interesting because he has or had a lot of content, a lot of training material, a lot of courses and he did something maybe surprising that would help not just himself, but more importantly help his audience that you’ll really love. And then lastly, James shares some very wise advice on doing joint ventures or some advice for people who are considering doing joint ventures. You can find James Shramko on superfastbusiness.com where he helps people grow a successful business online and his website has some really good video, podcast and blog articles about things like websites, traffic and other elements required for success online. And when he’s not doing all that stuff to help us, he loves to surf. Just before we hit the record button on this podcast he shared with me how he’s going to a surf tournament and I’ll be honest I sound a little jealous, I’ve gone surfing just a few times in Hawaii and it was awesome. I don’t have a chance to do that much where I live but since he lives in Australia it sounds like he get a lot of time to surf and that sounds like a lot of fun. So James thanks for being on the online coach course podcast. James Shramko: My pleasure, thank you for having me. Jeff Long: So tell me a little bit about your first online course and why you decided to create it. James Shramko: The first online course I created was very humble beginnings. It was actually a ten lines in a excel spreadsheet and it was a checklist I was using for myself, when I was building a website using a particular software program because I found that the software program was good but I'd learnt a lot about SEO, which is Search Engine Optimization and I knew that there was some modifications I could make when  I built the site to make it rank better in Google so I started using this checklist and then I realize that I could promote this software as an affiliate which meant that I could make some commission and to internalize people to buy it from me. I offered them this cheat sheet and the first cheat sheet is when I took this ten lines of excel, turned it into a little word document. I can't remember how big it was but it's only a few pages and effectively that was my first information product because people would buy through my affiliate link and they would send me their receipt and claim their cheat sheet. Jeff Long: That's cool. Now where did you get this idea, were you following other people or were you just kind of thinking, you know what if I had this cheat sheet and check list, I'm sure other people would want to purchase it . James Shramko: Well at that time I was a General Manager at a Mercedes Benz Dealership so I was very up with checklist and standard operating procedures and systems. And I had therefore created a system for myself and I used to have a system when I was a sales person. That I would do every single time and I'm a big fan of frameworks because I think you can get maximum results by going through a framework and even good pilots have checklist when they fly and airplane and doctors and surgeons have checklist in the operating theatre. I think it's a good idea, so the idea to create was pretty straight forward. It was a natural instinct, but when I also realized that other people would also get value from it that was helpful. And I think I probably got the idea from a guy called Steven Pierce who had this idea of complementing a niche rather than competing a niche and I thought that was a good idea and I also discover the possibility of being an affiliate online. I didn’t really understand how it worked 10 years ago from the time of recording this, but has I sort of felt it out I realize that I could come to the market with something of value that was the opposite of a discount which was something that I really despise people who go into the market place offering rebates and cash back, think that’s a race to the bottom. I want to create a value ad that added more value to the buyer that allowed me to get my full commission. So it seemed logical and it worked out great. It’s actually how it evolved into a membership and 100 and 30 something page cheat sheet that I sold a lot of. In fact I made my first $100,000 online as an affiliate for this product and the cheat sheet became so popular that people who already had the software were contacting me saying I’ve already got the software, “can I buy the cheat sheet from you?” And I thought well if you send me $40 PayPal I’ll send you the cheat sheet and they did. Jeff Long: Wow!! James Shramko: And then someone got it and they went into a forum and they said to these other people, “hey if you have this program you absolutely have to get this cheat sheet if you send him $40 through PayPal he’ll send it to you”. And the next day I came home from work and there was all these emails from the forum members, just like 20 or 30 emails from people trying to send me $40. So I ended up putting it up on its own website and I sold more of the cheat sheet then I was selling as an affiliate so that was when the sales tipped across to me selling my first information product. I actually launched it in the warrior forum as a warrior special offer and that wake I was moving house. And for that wake I was making $1000 a day in sales and that was when I thought if I could just put out information products instead of working then I could do this full time. Jeff Long: Yeah, that’s so good. Isn’t that so exciting when you make your first dollar, $10, $100, you know or $1000 online, it’s like wow this is real. I’m really helping people. I’m serving a need and people are wanting this, that’s such a good feeling to have. James Shramko: I still think it’s bizarre you know. If I have any reoccurring nightmare it’s something about me working in a job and I quit my job about 7 or 8 years ago. I’m well past that point but you almost have to pinch yourself to think what a different life you can have and that’s in part because it’s the leverage that comes from being able to sell ideas, literally electrons. People are paying for electrons and bandwidth, that’s sort of an invisible asset. Jeff Long: Yeah I know that’s brilliant. So a lot of our audience has online courses already. They’re in the mix teaching people. There are a hand full of people that are still contemplating, how do I teach or what do I teach. So James what are some ways that somebody recommends select topic for an online course. Maybe they don’t have the exact topic or maybe they are trying to choose from an array of topics. How do you select a topic for an online course or product? James Shramko: Mine always usually driven through my own self need. You know if I was trying to figure out how to rank websites and how to build a website with the software it’s logical to think that other people would also be having the same challenge and by solving my own problem through research and try in an area I was actually creating an information resource that is valuable. So I’m seeing all the courses on niche research, keyword research and determining competition and all of that but that’s not really how I roll. I really usually just solve my own challenges first and then as customers come on board they are pretty quick to tell you what they need or ask for things and that helps you innovate. So if you were to look at my business today, 10 years after I started it’s actually extremely simple business and it’s just helping people out with things that used to be a challenge for me but they are no longer a challenge for me because I solved them and made the solution available to other people. Jeff Long: That’s great. Yeah that’s so good you’re not overcomplicating things, you know it’s like you’re saying, “hey what do I either already know or want to learn and how can I make that knowledge available to other people, it’s pretty simple. James Shramko: And I think one of the core things is you got to be at least interested enough in it to surround yourself with it for a number of years. Jeff Long: Sure. James Shramko: That’s why I feel contrary to a niche research and you decide you want to do and info product, a model train operators or gold fish earners, I mean that’s very commercial maybe but it’s not really that exciting or interesting. Jeff Long: Sure. James Shramko: To think about, so… Jeff Long: I don’t know gold fish earners. That’s pretty out there. James Shramko: Look I mean no offence to gold fish earners but like it doesn’t float my boat. Jeff Long: Sure. James Shramko: I want to make sure that I’m able to face this subject and have discussions on that topic for some time to come so I’ve built businesses around areas that I have a natural leaning towards. So this board is on that sort of passion versus commercial thing. And sometimes I will do things that are commercially good but might not be amazing for my level of interest. But I pretty much weighted those out over the last few years because I have the choice now. Jeff Long: Yeah, now one of the ways I was first connected to you through your blog and your podcast, which I’ve been following religiously is you talked about an online, a course outline template, you know this grid system. You might want to walk through that a little bit, explaining what that course outline template is. James Shramko: Yeah it’s called “Format” and some smart lady invented it years ago and I first discovered it when I went to a presenter’s course and the short version is that it covers different modalities and it sort of open up topics to put it into an easy digestible and actionable method. The format is…why, what, how, what if and then I’d added action steps. So if we were to use the example of the format, we could go through the framework, why. Why do you have a format? Because it gives you a really easy framework to use every single time you create a piece of training material. What is it? It’s just a simple step that you fill out on a piece of paper or on a whiteboard before you start training. How do you do it? Once you’ve drafted out your ideas then you can take all the good ideas, cross off everything bad then you’re pretty much ready to roll. And the what if, is to cover off objections. What if you don’t like frameworks or you’re worried about it being formulate or you don’t understand how it works. Well just try it and see how you go and ask questions if you don’t understand it. I know people sometimes ask questions on my blog where I post at least 3 different versions of this on my blog. The reason we keep publishing it is it’s by far one of the most popular subject on my entire blog at superfastbusiness.com. And then the action step is to post question. What someone should do as a result of going through that training module. So having this framework means that I’m able to interview an expert or deliver a training subject on any topic with about a minutes worth of preparation. It’s just so easy to follow. It’s actually step by step system and it really does cover the subject in good detail. Jeff Long: It’s interesting as I’ve been reading that and studying that and thinking about that template or that format I see you use it in your podcast, in your blogs and so it’s really cool to almost learn from the master doing it. You’re not just saying, “hey you should do this everybody”, but you’re doing that in a lot of your materials which is really cool to see you do it in different formats. James Shramko: It really helps when you interview someone who you’re not that familiar with. You can go through that format, it doesn’t seem like you’re punching through a template. I may not use the actually word, why or what or how or what if, you know spell it out. But I’m usually always going through that framework. Jeff Long: That’s good. That’s really good, good advice. So what are some of the mistake you’ve made with your online courses, the products you’ve made, I’m sure you made a couple right. You’re not infallible there? James Shramko: I don’t make too many mistakes. I just think it’s easier to learn from other people than to make the mistake firsthand. I’m not a big fan of that fail fast or fail big school of thought I’m much more strategic than that. I think the main mistake that I’ve made and other people make is the way they package their products. Generally it’s tempting to start off with one information product, that’s a onetime product. And I just told you that’s exactly how I started but I quickly moved into a membership scenario where the only way to buy my products now is to join subscription membership. And I do that because it’s better for the consumer. Instead of being able to have a low investment in themselves, say $39, download a PDF and some videos and some mp3s and maybe or maybe not ever look at it again. Now they join a gated community where they pay a monthly subscription fee or membership fee. They can now access all of my information so they can get the information they need right now because it’s all in their like a super market and they can have support, they can ask questions. And because it’s somewhere where they go they can also network with other people who are also at the same pace or even a little further down the track than them. So they get the advantage of having a peer group pulling them through and some action and accountability, so for that reason whenever I record my live events and whenever I put out a new monthly training it all gets put into the membership and that’s the only way that people can buy my products now. Jeff Long: That’s great. When did you get to that point where you said, “you know what I think I could be more affective if I bundle it all together”. Was that a process or is that a fast thing that you just decided to do one day. James Shramko: It was about three years ago and I was mapping my business up on a whiteboard which I do every 12 weeks and I recommend everyone listening does this. And I was drawing up my products and one of my products was a membership forum and I drew this big circle of my products and then outside the circle was joint ventures and this membership was a joint venture so it was half in the circle and half out of the circle; then I realized that all of my products in the circle were feeding this membership and it was literally leaking my revenue to a 50% share partner who was an amazing character, honest, impeccable person however was not contributing to the marketing or the delivery or fulfillment of the membership to the same extent that I was. So I was probably answering 75% of the questions but I was adding 99.9% of the members through my own information products. So I recognized that this is a mistake so I repackaged it, I pushed the whole thing into the circle and I put all of my products into this one thing so I was able to package it better for my customers. So instead of buying separate things now, my customers could buy one thing and get everything and it's much easier to understand the offer, it's much easier for me to fulfill and to deliver. It's creates a lot of power and leverage of the networking between the customers and also when I looked at my sales and if you're familiar with the AD20 principle; what I realized is that basically the bottom 20% of my products were driving about 1% of my sales because I realized, to my horror that I was giving people an easy option that doesn't really serve them well. They could just pay $39.00 or $29.00 and they thought they were getting a bargain but they were ripping themselves off because they're not paying me the money, they're investing in themselves and I was only letting buy a very small snack and they were not utilizing it as well and I was astounded at how many people don't make it through a multi-video training sequence in a single product format so I recon if you were to cast your survey around your own members, I think you'd find that the people who deliver one time information products, if they look at their analytics, very few customers ever make it through to the end of the product. And then of course you're in this constant feast and famine mode, you have to do a launch and you have to drive sales and you got to set out the next product and you got to put up another sales page and you have to drive affiliates and you've got to have JV contests and you've got to bang the drum and own the market. Instead, I've just got this one omnipresent information portal that people can join and stay a member of for life. So the average customer value is astronomical. Jeff Long: Yeah you brought up some really good points that I want to hit at. The first one is; you mentioned the analogy of a snack and a meal. You know a lot of times consumers, students or whoever, they are going for that cheap hey I just want to learn this, and they think that the smaller, cheaper product will help them but they don't even make it through the course and so like you said, they're shooting themselves in the foot, they're doing themselves the service by in a way being cheap but they're not helping themselves in the long run so I like your attitude on that. James Shramko: And on the flip side of that you get these ridiculous $2000 and $3000 courses that have thud factor and only a fool measures information products by the pound but marketers have made people think this is how I should measure an information product by how big the box is and how much it thuds down on my desk; it is not consumable. I've got a hard drive here on one of my shelves that is stuffed full of gigabytes of information products. I've got someone’s entire back catalog but I'm scared to plug it into my computer because I just can't commit the time that's going to be involved to digest that; it's really like eating an elephant but when you give people a subscription membership, you think of it more like a Netflix where you can just go in and consume what you need right now. You can go and watch a TV series on Netflix and go through episodes and they queue up for you and when you finish that you go on to the next one and you've said, you know what, I'm happy to pay this monthly subscription ongoing as long as I feel I'm getting value and support. The information product can't support people but a subscription membership with a networking factor really can support people and it helps people choose what to consume and it's always available for them when they're ready. Jeff Long: Yeah, that's good. And I love that you have that community aspect built into your membership because as you know that's some of the power there is multiple minds getting together to sharpen each other. Do you have any success stories on some of your students that have gone through your membership site and plugged in or helped other people? I've got tons of them. A lot of people would know some of them. My first millionaire student was James Dyson; we pretty much invented optimize press and then I've help other people from Clay Collins through to Kevin Rogers, a copywriter. His forum that we set up as an information product has just turned one and he's absolutely flying. But we also help people in the fitness market. One of my students just made $100,000 in a month, Chris Dufey in the fitness niche. So this works for different markets; in fact one of my best to students right now is launching an information membership, Andre Chaperon and he's been doing that under my guidance each week for the last year or more and he was a one-time product I was doing affiliate promotions each month and he also believes.., you know I've convinced him that it's better for members to be a part of a community where they're accountable and they can get support. So those are some names that you would be familiar with and maybe some names you weren't. Jeff Long: Yeah, I'm a big fan of optimize press by the way. I've used it several times, very good theme, good system there. You mentioned a while ago a little bit about joint ventures and I know we could do a whole podcast interview or episode on the topic of joint ventures but what are some tips that you would offer the listener if they're thinking about doing JVs or if they're getting asked to be a part of the JV? James Shramko: So, I don't do many JVs anymore with the exception of my podcasts. They have genuine joint ventures where I will pair up with a co-host and we produce something together as a marketing tool but I don't do financial backend joint ventures often because I don't need to. Often you'll need to do a joint venture in the beginning if you're missing something. If you can't drive traffic, it makes sense to find someone who's got your customers and do a joint venture with them. So joint ventures can be very powerful. One of the reasons not to do a joint venture is if you're being a complete wuss bag and you are petrified of doing something on your own and you secretly wish that your business partner will do everything for you and you can piggyback them and hang on to their coattails; that is a very common reason for people to joint venture because of their just scared and they can't man up and step up and be courageous enough to do it on their own. So if you can buy traffic or if you can get out of having to do a joint venture I much prefer 100% ownership so be very careful when you joint venture that you are not giving up too much of the pie, make sure that it's a very, very clear agreement, upfront, so that it's clear on how the partnership will and. You need to know how will end before you started. Be very wary of doing joint ventures with friends. It's better to have a business contact who becomes a friend than a friend who becomes a business contact. Especially, be accountable to yourself. If you know you're doing a joint venture because you're just being a scaredy-cat, that's a really terrible idea to do a joint venture. It's not going to work out. Jeff Long: You just packed a lot there, that's fantastic. I was taking a little bit of notes and I'll have to go back and listen to that part because it is easy to think that a joint venture will just easily bring success you know, two mines are better than one and all the clichés that get thrown out there. James Shramko: But you know, at the very core it means that you're half the profit. Just to put it in perspective, I paid about $400,000 in partner tax for my joint venture and when I turned on that joint venture.., and I try to do it in a very amicable way, offered to buyout, offered to sell out, offered to adjust the split but none of those were met with any sort of response so in the end I just had to start my own thing. But it was literally worth $15,000 per month back into my pocket for getting the structure correct and if I'm honest about why I started the joint venture it really is because I wasn't being responsible enough to set up the technology that was required to get it started so I wouldn't of had it without the joint venture but it was pretty expensive in hindsight. So if you can learn anything from my for eye it's, be super careful about what the deal is and how it's supposed to work and in fairness when we started, it was supposed to be 50% each driving traffic and 50% each fulfilling on the product and it just didn't work out that way and a lot of partnerships don't because it's so rare that two people will move through life at the same pace. Someone might have a change in relationship, someone might move country, someone might have a different business division that's taking off and I think that's what happened in my case. My partner had different translation businesses all sort of exploding and foreign translation markets and had great businesses on the side but it meant that our business was sort of neglected. So the chance of people moving at the same pace are slim and that's why you need to know how it ends before you start it. Jeff Long: Yeah, that's so good. I had a business partner for several years, great guy, I trusted him but like you said we were just moving at different paces, kind of in different directions at the time and we did decide to part ways and that was a great decision. I still bring them on, I hire him for some projects and that definitely has well worked that way. James Shramko: I have partnerships like that where we did things together and then I purchased his halfback and then I still have a joint venture with him where he supply services in lieu of you is for you to use a self, I guess we call it a barter or trade, contra deal where he does things for me and I do things for him and that's great. So you can have really successful joint ventures but you need to be very clear why are you doing it. I think that most people fall over with the motivation. Why they're doing it is often the wrong reason and then of course everyone's Pollyanna and optimistic when they go into a joint venture, it's really easy to talk about a joint venture when there's no money coming in but once you've got several hundred thousand dollars coming through the front door, it changes people. Jeff Long: That's so good, that's such a good advice. So to the listener, you are thinking of joint ventures or if you're stepping towards that rewind this episode, listen to that; such good advice James. What are some tools that you use when you're creating some of your courses and your products? James Shramko: Mostly just a pen and paper were whiteboard, I'm not super fancy. Also my team, I might ask them to do stuff and then I'll just curate it or compile it. So for example, I'm going to be speaking at an event in Colorado soon and I just briefed my team of what I would like and they've gone and created 20 or 30 illustrations to use the slides based around a podcast that we've already done before and I'll basically just order them and put some notes in the presenters notes and the presentation will be all good to go. And I'll be able to record that with screen flow and make it an information product for my customers. Jeff Long: And how do you coordinate with your team? Is it email, is that a certain system? James Shramko: Slack, we all use Slack. You don't need to use email anymore or Skype. Jeff Long: Last question here is; with some of your courses, I know that you're a big fan of podcasts, you blog, you do a lot of video stuff so with the course or with a product how do you determine what medium to use, if it's audio or video or both or text-only? What are some of the guidelines that you follow and think you through that process? James Shramko: Well I always think about the customer and is going to help them if they have multiple modalities available to them because people learn differently. Some people like to read.., I've got one customer who will only read, he will not listen to audio, you will not watch videos, he's a pastor really but he's also a gift because we transcribe everything that I do. Every single monthly webinar that I run we transcribe in full most of my podcasts. Certainly everything one superfastbusiness.com gets transcribed. So we provide PDFs, we provide the video and the audio so when it comes to information products I like to me the video version because it's easier to make keynotes, it's really easy to record a keynote with screen flow and once I export that into a video and loads up to whistier which is our video player and we embed it into our forum my people come along and they'll strip out the audio and they'll transcribe every word of it into a PDF and it will be available for customers in whatever modality they like to learn. See, I preferred to read or listen than watch videos for some reason. When it comes to creating content for my podcasts I really like the audio medium; it's significantly easier to just talk to a microphone, don't have to do here in makeup and lighting and camera, it's really just the easiest possible modality. So the thing that's important to me is working in the medium that's easy for me to create content. In fact, recently I just created a six part business case study series with a co-host and it took us about 2 1/2 hours in total to create that so it's a very effective medium for creating good quality content, it's got a huge distribution platform with platforms like iTunes and stitcher and your own website and it's working for you 24/7. These things get downloaded like 2000 times a day which is phenomenal when you think about how much it would cost to buy ads on Google or Facebook and you know, you could just keep doing that so I like the audio medium and really helps people hear your tonality and decide if they trust you and if you know what you're talking about or not so it's a very personal medium as well. Jeff Long: That's fantastic. I have a background in video; having this podcast as well as other audio formats, a lot of times there such a benefit to that you know, you're in people's ears with the podcast with audio and it's almost this intimate thing where people feel this connection to you. James Shramko: Plus you can listen to a podcast in an airport or on a plane for jogging or doing things to where you can't necessarily watch a video so think of it as a little bit more portable and I noticed that when I put a video and audio there'll be twice as many audio downloads as they are video views. And the other thing is I don't type, I literally hardly type so I'm not sitting there blogging off like some wannabe writer you know, I just talked and my team transcribes, that's how it works for us. Jeff Long: Well James, I could ask you questions all day but I want to respect your time, I know you've got a lot going on including surfing; you were telling me a little bit about that. So James, besides your website which is superfastbusiness.com, where can people find you through social media or other outlets? James Shramko: I've got a Facebook page and I also do Twitter but that's about it. I don't care much for LinkedIn or Pinterest or Instagram, I want to keep it simple actually, I'm a pretty simple guy. Most of the time I spend in my own community answering people's questions, that's the thing I like to do the most. Jeff Long: Well James, thanks so much for being on the show giving so much good advice on these online courses, membership sites, joint ventures. I'm going to go back and listen to this again and I hope the listener does as well so James Shramko thanks so much for being on the show. James Shramko: Thanks for having me. Jeff Long: Well there you go. That was the interview with James Shramko. I know personally, I'm going to go back and listen to that episode again because there were so many good things he pulled out. Just the wisdom that he had joint ventures as well as the membership sites so if you're considering some of these things whether it is a joint venture or a membership site, definitely rewind, is that what you do with the podcast these days? Rewind, go backwards, whatever it's called to those parts and relisten to those. Hey they could do one thing for me, share this podcast out on your social media channels whether it's Twitter, Facebook you name it. I would be honored if you were to share this episode out. I think it was a great episode, it helped a lot of people and so I want to harness the power of you on a listener base to share this out so if you're listening to the podcast on your phone just did that share button and send it out to your social media channels. If you're listening to it online go ahead, copy that URL, post in Facebook, post in Twitter etc. I would be honored for you to post that out and include me on it if you don't mind. If you're on Twitter my Twitter name is @Jeff_long and that will help me see you treated that out. So if you're listening to this in time I will be at FinCon which is September 17-20 so if you're at FinCon, if you're going to FinCon definitely let me know if you're there will have to connect or if you're listening to this after FinCon and maybe you didn't go definitely ping me, let me know that you were there and will chat about the conference. If you're not going definitely check it out next year, it's something that I've heard is a really good conference and so that's why I'm going this year. Well hey, keep coming back to the show is my goal that this podcast helps of you to teach many to impact millions so keep coming back to the online course coach podcast.

Sep 17, 2015
 
 I had the privilege of talking with Michael Kitces in preparation for us both attending FinCon ("a conference where money and media meet"). This interview will give you an inside look into his business and services and show you the steps he took to become an authority in the personal finance market. The best thing about this podcast is that you don't have to be in the financial industry or go to FinCon to get a lot of good insights from this interview. In fact, Michael shares how to duplicate his success in  your own industry. Some of the tips and insights that Michael gives have me thinking of how I can apply similar techniques in my own business, as well as the clients that we serve by creating their online course content and membership sites. There is a lot to learn in this interview, so whether or not you're in the financial services industry, you can take a lot from this interview and apply it to your membership site, CE courses, and online courses.

Get the free bonus audio interview where Michael shares his top membership website resources and productivity tools.

Click to Download the Bonus Audio

Podcast Questions with Michael Kitces

  1. Give us a background of what your business does.
  2. I see the word Educator all over your website, while most people would classify themselves by their degrees or other accelerates, it looks like education in one of your priorities. Do you consider yourself primarily as an educator?
  3. Why did you start offering Continuing Education services on your website?
  4. How are you uniquely qualified to help accelerate the growth of people's own financial planning knowledge?
  5. How has this business model positioned you as an industry leader?
  6. What are some ways someone in the financial industry can help more people and increase their revenue by creating online courses?
  7. Bonus: What are some of the technologies used on your website to developer the members only content? (click below to download the bonus audio interview)
  8. Bonus: what are the productivity tools you use in your business?(click below to download the bonus audio interview)
  9. Where can people learn more about you?

Get the free bonus audio interview where Michael shares his top membership website resources and productivity tools.

Click to Download the Bonus Audio

My Notes During the Podcast with Michael Kitces:

  • Michael has a B2C and a B2B business
  • He considers himself an educator
  • The financial industry is 5-10 years behind with technology (there could be some opportunities here)
  • He went through a process of being able to offer Continuing Education credits
  • The CE provider has to give a quiz or test to show the student went through the content and passed the quiz
  • His business is growing 5%-10% per month since he gives his content away for free, but they have to pay for the CE quiz and credits
  • He was a speaker, then had a newsletter service, then added blogs, and then added Continuing Education services, and not he’s adding more services and businesses to serve his audience.
  • If you want to create an online course in the financial services industry, be more focussed and niche, not broad and general. There are too many people doing generic courses.
  • He offers the content for free but charges for the CE quizzes
  • He loves Evernote to plan, blog and organize his life and business
  • Don’t make your business model, the content portion. Make the monitization strategy the implementation and strategy portion
  • Get the free bonus audio and hear Michael answers to: "What are some of the technologies used on your website to developer the members only content” and “What are the productivity tools you use in your business?"
  • Another great interview on the topic of membership sites: http://www.superfastbusiness.com/business/how-to-jumpstart-your-membership-forum/

Michael Kitces' Bio:

Michael E. Kitces, MSFS, MTAX, CFP®, CLU, ChFC, RHU, REBC, CASL, is a partner and the Director of Research for Pinnacle Advisory Group, a private wealth management firm located in Columbia, Maryland that oversees approximately $1.3 billion of client assets. In addition, he is a co-founder of the XY Planning Network, the practitioner editor of the Journal of Financial Planning, and the publisher of the e-newsletter The Kitces Report and the popular financial planning industry blog Nerd’s Eye View through his website www.Kitces.com, dedicated to advancing knowledge in financial planning.
 
Beyond his website, Michael is an active writer and editor across the industry and has been featured in publications including Financial Planning, the Journal of Financial Planning, Journal of Retirement Planning, Practical Tax Strategies, and Leimberg Information Services, as well as The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, CNBC PowerLunch, NBC Nightly News, and more. In addition, Michael has co-authored numerous books, including “The Annuity Advisor” with John Olsen (now in 3rd edition), the first balanced and objective book on annuities written for attorneys, accountants, and financial planners, and “Tools & Techniques of Retirement Income Planning” with Steve Leimberg and others.
 
Michael is one of the 2010 recipients of the Financial Planning Association’s “Heart of Financial Planning” awards for his dedication to advancing the financial planning profession. In addition, he has variously been recognized as financial planning's "Deep Thinker," a "Legacy Builder," an "Influencer," a "Mover & Shaker," part of the “Power 20,” and a "Rising Star in Wealth Management" by industry publications. These awards were presented to honor Michael’s active work in the financial planning community, which currently includes serving as a member of the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Financial Planning, national chair of the Financial Planning Section for the Society of Financial Services Professionals, and numerous other boards and committees for the Financial Planning Association and the Society of Financial Services Professionals at the local and National levels. Michael is also a co-founder of NexGen, a community of the next generation of financial planners that aims to ensure the transference of wisdom, tradition, and integrity, from the pioneers of financial planning to the next generation of the profession.

 

Sep 10, 2015

photo of Kris Simmons I've known Kris Simmons for several years. What started out as listening to his podcast, turned into buying his e-books on how to create a proposal for my video production client. I eventually became a part of his membership site in 2013 and have been a member ever since. Kris and I both help corporate clients create high quality training videos, safety videos and much more, so I wanted to have him on the show. And, just like me, Kris is an entrepreneur, who has created very profitable ebooks, online courses and membership sites. In this episode Kris shares his insights on how to produce quality training videos. He also goes in depth of how he started and grew his online membership site. Keep listening for his tips and tricks to give the most value in a membership site, without having to kill yourself with continually adding the wrong content. Please help us bring share this content with others by leaving a rating and review. Or, share the podcast on your social media accounts directly from your podcast app or on the website.

 

In this show we talk about some of the following:

  • I'll be at the FinCon (Financial Conference) in Charlotte, NC on September 17-20th. If you're there, I'd love to meet you.
  • In this episode we start off by talking about his video production company and some tips on how to make the best training video
  • We talk about how to market your courses and ebooks as well as his successes and challenges along the way
  • He talks about how much value you should be bring into a course or membership site. Is there such a thing as too much value?
  • What happened when he moved his forums to FB and what results that provided
  • Kris recommends just getting it out there and launched, knowing that he can modify things as he moves ahead

Questions I asked Kris Simmons in the podcast

  •  Tell me about your corporate video experience and background.
  • What type of corporate training videos have you produced over the years?
  • How do you go from safety training manual to a training video
  • Share with the audience the the genesis of why you created your first e-book?
  • How did you market your ebooks?
  • What led you to creating online training materials for your audience?
  • What is Kre8 university?
  • What are some tools you use to make Kre8 University site?

Kris Simmons of 6 Strong's bio

6 STRONG’s founder and executive producer, Kris Simmons, is a leader in utilizing production, design and communication strategies for creating and executing successful corporate videos. His commitment to learning and mastering these principles won him Tennessee’s “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” honors from the U.S. Small Business Administration in 2004. It has also resulted in numerous awards from the American Advertising Federation among several other national and international organizations. Kris is an advisory board member for the Digital Video Professionals Association (DVPA) and has also served on the board of directors for Carson Newman University (his alma mater), the Chattanooga Technology Council and the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. In addition to running 6 STRONG, Kris has helped over 10,000 video professionals worldwide learn how to be more successful in the video production industry through his training programs, ebooks, coaching services and speaking appearances. Under his leadership, the 6 STRONG team produces hundreds of video productions each year for clients ranging from the Fortune 500 to successful small businesses and non-profit organizations located in Chattanooga, Atlanta, Nashville and throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia.

You can find Kris at 6Strong and Kre8Insights.com

Sep 3, 2015

image of Ryan Allen The goal of the Online Course Coach podcast is to interview people in different industries, so when I met Ryan Allen on a video shoot and learned of his background at the University level with eLearning and Learning Management Systems, I knew I had to get him on the show. Since I come from a family of educators (my parents are college professors), I had a great interest to hear of Ryan's experiences in online courses at the collegiate level. He shared how they've grown in their Learning Management Systems (LMS), how they work with professors to put their courses online and some of the struggles he's had in the process. We discuss open source LMS' like Moodle and why they use a custom LMS for their online course content. Ryan's department helps professors by teaching them how to use software, get online and use the LMS, so the professors can more effectively teach their students. He works with the professor of crafting a course for online consumption, which usually means restructuring the in-class content to be more effective online. While some people don't like online learning, Ryan gives a compelling reason for eLearning in all sectors, including in the university setting. Ryan shares some of the tools and resources they use to help their professors build their eLearning courses. Many of these tools are the same ones that are used outside a university settings, which is good to hear that various screen capture tools can be versatile across industries. The good thing is that while many of the tools they use are robust and expensive, there are many tools they use that are free of very affordable and Ryan talks about them in the interview. The University of Dayton has many types of online classes and Ryan shares some of the differences between an online course without instructor led training and one that has it. I find that the courses that we create for our clients have much better retention if there is a video of the instructor's face, or if the students have access to the  instructor through private chats, forums, weekly calls or other such ways. While it's easier to create an online course to "set it and forget it", the students actually learn best, when an instructor is involved in some way. What are some ways that you can be a part of your online training, so that students can have access to you and your experience? This could make all the difference in the success of your online course, tutorial videos and eLearning. While most of the interviews on this podcast have been with business or entrepreneurial applications, it's nice to hear how the masters of teaching (universities) have been doing it best both in person and online for hundreds of years. I enjoyed my time with Ryan and learned a lot through our conversation.

About Ryan Allen:

"Ryan Allen is the Associate Director of E-Learning Systems and Support in the University of Dayton’s Ryan C. Harris Learning Teaching Center.  He has eleven years of experience working in the field of educational technology with a focus on distance education pedagogy and the use of Learning Management Systems.  Ryan manages the development, training and support of the UD’s open source Learning Management System - Isidore.  He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Business Administration from Heidelberg University.  He is also a Project Management Professional.

Tools he uses to help the professors:

  • Blackboard Collaborate to help him teach the professors
  • Screencasting software (Snagit or Camtasia)

Find Ryan Here: University of Dayton

Fun Delta Airlines Safety Videos that take a boring topic and make it engaging and funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vttuonfu2BM

Aug 27, 2015

image of Kevin Gerrior What does a former Apple and Dell employee think about education, eLearning, startups and innovation? In today's podcast Kevin Gerrior shares his insights and experiences. I've known Kevin for several years and he's one of the best at creating innovative strategies to teach using technology. He's on the front edge of mobile learning, online learning, gamification, and other innovations that improve the learning process. While he's an educator at heart, it's his love for technology, innovation and entrepreneurship that drives him.

Shownotes:

  • Kevin is a former Apple and Dell employee
  • He has extensive background in the education and startup sectors
  • He uses technology to help teach and train
  • Kevin is a family man with good integrity

Find Kevin Here: @kevingerrior

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